To celebrate his 80th birthday the legendary conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra and the promising young violinist Irmina Trynkos, presents for the first time on record works by Nimrod Borenstein, a composer whom Ashkenazy has admired and supported for many years. The past few years have seen his compositions premiered and performed at prestigious venues including the Royal Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, and Carnegie Hall in New York. Written especially for the occasion, If you will it, it is no dream was premiered by Ashkenazy to great acclaim in 2013 at the Royal Festival Hall. While Borenstein is a supremely melodic composer, he draws attention in his work to his special use of counterpoint, which he says could be described as ‘multimelodic’, suggesting the eternal but ever-changing flow of time, in which events constantly overlap with one another. This technique is characteristic of both If you will it, it is no dream and The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe.

Review by John Broggio - September 10, 2017

A fine rendition of this music.

Opening the disc is Borenstein's violin concerto that takes nearly 30 minutes. Irmina Trynkos makes light work of the solo part and her impassioned performance makes one believe that she is convinced by the music; it does not quite manage to transfer that commitment to the listener though.

The second work on the disc is the grandly titled The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe. If the music here is (even very loosely) depicting what the title or notes suggest, then this reflection on Genesis and recent scientific thinking as imagined here makes Haydn's & Rebel's depictions of the same themes sound as boldly avant-garde and dramatically exciting as when they were composed (even in decidedly non-HIP, mediocre accounts).

The last work If You Will It, It Is No Dream was written for the Philharmonia, who gave the premiere of this work under Ashkenazy's baton. There are some interesting fragments that evoke the approaches used by many films or TV dramas in "dramatic moments" and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, although with far smaller forces at their disposal than the Philharmonia, make the most of this work.

This was recorded in the Henry Wood Hall, London by the Chandos engineering team to their typically high standards.